We've been under lease on two parcels for three years and were told a well had been drilled
and fracked but not produced. Does anyone know of any wells being produced in
Jackson County?
It's been a while since you posted this, but I thought I'd ask if they ever started producing that well?
Hi, Kyle! It's really timely that you chose this time for follow up. Hays never did produce the well and this year failed to renew the lease. I thought, because of the low prices, that W Va shale was not profitable to produce so
they just bowed out. However, two months or so ago, Hardrock called out of the blue and said they had bought Hays out and wanted to pick up the lease. My wife asked them to forward a proposal and we would consider it.
After about a month we'd not heard from them and my wife called and asked what had happened to the lease. The contact (Brian Tanner of Hardrock) said he thought it had been mailed. He was on the road at the time but said he'd call his office and get it in the mail. That was about three weeks ago and we've still not heard from them. Has the reduced price of gas caused a big downturn in W. Va. We live in Texas and the impact has been huge.
Yes, things have definitely slowed down around here. Marginal areas have been dropped from production schedules, and good areas have been scaled back.
It sounds to me like you now own a well. It's too bad you can't get out to the property to visually inspect it. Do you know where the property is? Like, if you got on the Office of Oil and Gas' online map could you find it there? That would tell you for sure whether there was a well there.
I don't think I would sign any documents with Hays until you determined whether there was a well.
I must confess that I don't know what you mean by "own a well". 4 yrs ago, Hays told us that they had drilled, but not fracked, a gas well on one of our three mineral-interest properties. These mineral
rights have been in my wife's family and we want to be faithfull stewards of that bequest. I just can't understand what value they represent when they produced nothing when prices were $2..00
higher when we had the lease. I lived, for a time, in Braxton County, and have first-hand knowledge
of what is required to get product to the mainline. Living, now, in Texas, it's hard to understand how small-time production in hilly terrain can compete with that type of drilling infrastructure.
If there's something here that I'm not seeing, I would entertain the idea of a trip to that area sometime in the spring to enlist your representation on our behalf. Please let me know your financial rquirements for that type of undertaking. We only lived in Braxton County for 2 and 1/2
years, but it remains in my memory as one of the best times of my life. It would be pleasant to
visit that place and time, and, determine the best way forward re: mineral rights.
In WV if there has been no production and there have been no payments for two years then there is a rebuttable presumption that the lease has expired. Hays put a well on your property, but let the lease expire. They don't have any rights to produce anything, or go on your property, so you own the well.
That's if all the facts actually are as I am assuming they are.
I do hope that you're able to come back out this direction for a visit. It's beautiful out here. I'll send you a message and we should talk on the phone to make sure the details are all correct.
That sounds great.......although the tax burden of these properties is not great, I am sort of semi-retired and don't need to keep spending money needlessly. Let me know re: next spring.